10-year Marliniversary: Stanton's 8th inning blast propels Marlins past Phillies

[Mike Ferguson]

In each of his eight seasons with the Florida/Miami Marlins, Giancarlo Stanton belted at least 22 home runs. On this day 10 years ago, he reached double digits for the seventh straight year with a dramatic blast.

Against the Philadelphia Phillies, Stanton’s blast broke the tie and lifted the Miami Marlins to a thrilling 6-4 victory.

After racing to a 4-0 lead, the Marlins had not scored since the second inning as they came to bat in the bottom of the eighth at Marlins Park on May 6, 2016. Following a scoreless seventh from Andrew Bailey, Philadelphia turned to hard-throwing Héctor Neris.

Neris had gotten Martín Prado to ground out to open the inning. After a one-out single from Christian Yelich, Stanton came to the plate. Stanton took the first pitch for a ball.

The second, he sent into orbit.

Neris left an 87-mph pitch out over the plate and Stanton was able to send it beyond the home run sculpture in left-centerfield for the go-ahead blast. The home run was his 10th of the year and capped the scoring. David Phelps worked a 1-2-3 ninth to record the save.

Prior to the eighth, all the Miami offense came early. Yelich got the scoring started with a two-run homer of his own in the first inning. In the second, J.T. Realmuto and Prado put together consecutive RBI singles to double the lead to 4-0.

Maikel Franco’s RBI double off Wei-Yin Chen got Philadelphia on the board in the third. After Peter Bourjos’ two-run double cut the lead to 4-3 in the fourth, Franco tied the game with a solo shot to lead off the fifth.

Franco, Bourjos and Freddy Galvis each had two of the 12 hits for the Phillies. Prado, Yelich and Marcell Ozuna each had two knocks for Miami. Kyle Barraclough faced the minimum during a scoreless eighth to earn the win.

Limited to 119 games by injury, Stanton would go on to hit 27 home runs during the 2016 season, including 10 in May. His second bomb of the month served as the game-winner for the Marlins. It came on this day 10 years ago.

View full article